This actually sounds quite cool. Thanks John! --joanie On Fri, 2009-10-23 at 21:31 +0100, John Rice wrote: > Joanie et al, > > I think a possible solution here is as follows: > > When you do an Update All or Install of any package that will require a > reboot, we should automatically create a BE (equiv to CLI --if-needed > option). If a BE needs to be created the user is notified at the end of > the Update All or Install operation in a Update All/ Install Completion > Dialog. This dialog contains a text field with the New BE name, which > users can accept or modify if they wish. > To explain the New Boot Environment to the user we will have a 'What's > This?' link beside the New BE Name textfiled for users to get more > details on: > -- What the BE is? > -- Why it was created? > -- How they can use the new BE to see their Updates. > > Now if the user carries out an Update, Install or Remove operation that > does not need a BE to be created it would be great to create a snapshot > for them automatically. We could have a Preference to prompt the user > for the snapshot name, but I think if its labeled with "<operation> > <package> <time>" that should probably be fine for most users. In the > History dialog below users could change snapshot names if this is > supported. > > When we asked about this some months ago, there were reasons why this > was not currently doable due to mixing system and user based snapshots, > not sure if this is still the case. > > Where this could be exposed would be in a History dialog that would list > the operations that had taken place (using an extended History API that > both GUI and CLI could take advantage of). Using a simple Time Slider > style interface int eh GUI we could allow them to move back and > forwards, between snapshots and or BE's, with appropriate warnings to > the user if they are going to change to a new BE and so on. > > Update All (BE opensolaris-11-10-2009) > - Install foobar > - Removed zeebar > Install woobar (BE opensolaris-11-08-2009) > - Install moobar > : > Update All (BE opensolaris-07-10-2009) > : > > JR > > Joanmarie Diggs wrote: > > On Fri, 2009-10-23 at 13:36 -0400, Dave Miner wrote: > > [...] > > > >> A couple of reasons why I prefer the BE: > >> > >> - It's directly surfaced into the boot loader as something bootable, > >> should you need to get back to it. A mere snapshot requires additional > >> action to actually be bootable, and if you're in a failure state, that > >> can become problematic. > >> > >> - The snapshots aren't as visible in either beadm or zfs without adding > >> options, which seems to make space management more involved. > >> > >> Beyond that, it seems to me that your "no danger of rendering the > >> current boot environment unbootable" criterion would be difficult to > >> apply automatically; the dependencies involved in getting to even > >> single-user are somewhat far-reaching and dynamic. I've found lots of > >> ways to get there when doing the live CD work ;-) > >> > > > > I love OpenSolaris, among other reasons, because of its reliability. So > > I wouldn't want that reliability to be jeopardized in any fashion. I > > also am jumping in on a discussion the implications of which I > > admittedly do not fully comprehend. So.... Functionally speaking: > > > > If a package can be updated by performing an image-update OR > > alternatively by doing an install of that package, I do not want a new > > boot environment. If updating the package in question has the potential > > to render my current BE unbootable, then shouldn't I be prevented from > > updating it via install so that I don't find myself in the failure state > > you describe? :-) > > > > Under the above circumstances, what I do currently is to first take a > > snapshot with a meaningful, grepable name. Then I manually install the > > package -- or packages -- in question. What I would really like to do in > > this case is an image-update. I would be prompted for a *snapshot* name > > rather than a BE name (in the case of the GUI, anyway), and the packages > > would be updated. Same number of steps as the current image-update (and > > fewer steps than what I must currently do), a fallback plan in the form > > of a snapshot which is visible in both beadm and zfs, and no new BE. > > > > Doesn't have to be the default option, but if it could be *an* option, > > that would be awesome. > > > > Take care. > > --joanie > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pkg-discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss > > >
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